Sir, – In your editorial (September 28th) you state that councillors for reasons of "shameless populism" sought to reduce the local property tax (LPT) by the allowed maximum threshold of 15 per cent. You state that this will be done so in the four Dublin local authorities, despite warnings from chief executives that the cuts would lead to cuts in services.
In Dún Laoghaire Rathdown, the chief executive clearly stated that this reduction would not lead to a cut in any existing services. When I and all my councillor colleagues took the decision to reduce the LPT again by 15 per cent, we were not motivated by populism but we did so in the interests of good governance.
The householders of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown already pay some of the highest per capita rates of LPT in the country, with 80 per cent of the tax collected being sent to other local authorities.
Surely if councils are able to cover their costs and provide a decent level of service then they do not need to impose a further tax burden on the people that they represent? – Yours, etc,
Cllr NEALE RICHMOND,
Ballinteer,
Dublin 16.